8 March 2018 Lawrenceburg City Council Working Meeting Notes

8 March 2018 Lawrenceburg City Council Working Meeting Notes

Because of the first assault on potential Port Authority property and what it could mean for the residents of and people who work in Lawrenceburg as well as the communities dependent on their water source or downstream from the area, I attended the special meeting of Lawrenceburg Council tonight. CBM

Present: Mayor - Kelly Mollaun and Council members: Paul Seymour, Jr, Tony Abbott, Aaron Cook, Mel Davis, and Randy Abner. 

Rick Richardson Clerk Treasurer. Attorney- Del Weldon. Olen Clawson, Utilities director. 

Joe Awad- Register Publications covered the meeting.

Brian DeBruler - Video taped the meeting

The room was nearly full.

Working session- with Redevelopment and Council: 

Mayor Mollaun- Approached about a sports complex over at the fairgrounds. JT Roberts for the sports complex  updated them that Town and Country ( the manager) and the investment group are still working things out. 

Council had agreed to move some things for 4H in anticipation of this working out. 

Olen Clawson had told him they were having their lineman competition at the same time as 4H fair. And having bull riding also. They are thinking of making it a dual purpose arena. 

Lawrenceburg Conservancy is involved in some land for this also. Council was in agreement and so they will start research on this working out. 

Mollaun -Talked about coming up with an investment committee- Jim Higgins (he couldn’t remember the company he worked for- but I believe it was London With in Indy. Higgins did work for the county in years past0 does this for many municipalities. Mollaun wants to make sure they are maximizing their investments for maximum return. 

Rick Richardson quoted a lot of Indiana Code- showing that he is the one who is authorized by law to do the investments. He passed out a packet of material. He checked with State Board of Accounts. Also got an outside opinion from Siekman Law office in Ohio County. He will ladder the investments and will have a monthly financial report online- the first is online already on the clerk treasurers office action of the website. The investing officer stays as the clerk treasurer. He’s been on the job 3 weeks now. He’s talked to McLaughlin at UCB and Tommy Palmer at US Bank. Committed to giving them updated information. Mollaun said he wouldn’t have brought this up if he knew he would do this. He’s all in favor of this. They noted there was no malicious intent in any of this. Del Weldon said the former Clerk Treasurer wanted this. Seymour said- this guys a worker-  lets turn him loose.

FLY ASH ORDINANCE:

Mollaun asked Weldon to present the proposed ordinance for controlling the Fly ash issue. Weldon gave a history of the fly ash controls that were put into place for the previous power plant owners. 1950-60s and 1973 were the 2 fly ash ponds. They put these in water to control them. In 2008 there was another landfill added for this. In 2015 AEP sold out and our ponds and landfill were grandfathered in prior to the new EPA rules set up after a couple major spills. IDEM has now decided to open this up for public input. They have met with appropriate agents and people in Indy. They have this ordinance online.

This is chapter 158 - Environmental Regulations- Weldon- read the new ordinance. Federal Government empowered IDEM to enforce this. The rules are new- from 2015-at IDEM.

Defined all the substances that they are prohibiting.

Penalties provision- Lawrenceburg can obtain an injunction.  Also damages, fines, and penalties. 

PUBLIC- Shara Schweitzer Aurora- concerns about the exceptions section. Weldon responded that there has to be an avenue for a variance for a court of law to look upon the ordinance favorably. He outlined the steps needed to get a variance and the PUBLIC hearing for this.

Another questioner stated that AEP tested their own groundwater for ash deposits. How to protect Aurora who is downstream from that. Weldon said that the cities and county are passing similar ordinances.

Another question from someone with TriTownship Water - IDEM has authority for 30 years to enforce the safe water drinking act. Clawson responded- that they have  a contingency. They have more protocols to test ground water and surface water too now. The wells for Lawrenceburg and Greendale are upstream from this. Aurora is downstream of it. Testing yields PROVABLE data for IDEM to sink their teeth into. Randy Turner, Steve Lampert, and he would turn in any data to IDEM.

Joe Awad- by state law they have to print those legals so read those in the local paper. Hoosier State Press works hard to keep those published. You don’t get these on Facebook!

Shara Schweitzer again- Four different notices were dated back to Jan 2017 to the property owner. Dearborn County has the highest incidence of cancer in the state. Cancer is inked to living near these ash pits. She noted they sit on Port Authority Board. These notices were copied to you and yet you say you didn’t know about this. Mollaun went on in detail saying he did not know about this, but he would never ever do anything to harm his family or the residents. [NOTE: it would be interesting for future reference to see where IDEM sent those notices and in what format.]

Brian DeBruler- Bright- applaud them for taking this step with the ordinance. Is this challenging the Army Corp of Engineers? IDEM specifies the enclosed conveyor for this. And this comment will address both. Conveyor might be away to stop it if the IDEM part isn’t stopped. Discussion that Dayton has landfill for this fly ash so why are they bringing it here- it’s right across the street from them. DeBruler noted that the company owning the land is suspect for not letting Lawrenceburg know what they were doing. And that we should respond to them with extreme prejudice.  

Jim Jung- complimented them for following up so fast. Also to try to make sure the public really gets informed. Weldon added verbal and written comment to be accepted from the public and also that notices will be PUBLISHED for the public for hearings at least 48 hours in advance.

The ordinance was unanimously approved by common council.   

Next item is the proposed housing project for the land next to Vance Tousey House. It’s a 150 luxury apt complex. Revenue impact is almost $300,000/year additional  in property taxes. These numbers were in line with Clawson’s estimates. The city looked to bond the project instead of paying cash. This would also be a TIF area. Mollaun likes they project. Should they take a deeper look at this. The infrastructure is already in place from utility standpoint per Clawson. The fixed cost side might be $10 million and thus this will keep rates lower for the rest of the community. In any utility you have to add more people into the the mix. They may have to spend $500,000 on this and will recoup it in a short period of time. Other developments from out in the county pay back much slower. Aaron Cook said that if they add more kids to the system they might need to do something for the school system because the TIF takes the money away. Davis agrees that it is a viable project and wants to see it move ahead. Seymour asked how much money the city gives to the project- about $14million out of the $30million total. Get the hard figures and see. 70% empty nesters and 30% millennials in their other projects. They want 53% gap money from L-bg and at least $5mil is for the garage needed. 

What is the average annual income of the renters? Two bedroom apt for $1100/month and one for $975/month. There may be a few studio apt. Income is $85-110,000 salary. 

They want Flaherty and Collins to borrow money locally and have local contractors. This is a reputable company and Mollaun has been to 2 of their developments- very nice communities. 

Flaherty and Collins is the name of the company. Look them up on the internet. [NOTE: Should high end rental property be subsidized by the local government?]

Historical Society is concerned about effects of the construction on their old building. They can’t afford to do major repairs. They are excited to get new blood there though. 

Pat Krider- Main Street- the exterior design is not the best aesthetically for our community. They have some on their website that might suit us better. Mollaun said they will ask for options on the exterior. 

Mollaun will meet up with them to get more hard numbers.

MORE QUESTIONS ON FLY ASH:

Rep. Frey has spoken with IDEM, Lyness and Perfect were contacted by Mollaun and he doesn’t know what they have done. 

Ports of Indiana is staying neutral now- though they want to know what is going in this holes also per Mollaun. [NOTE: If a Port Board is unable to take a leadership role in how they want to run the port and what they want to allow, the what good are they really to the community housing the port?]

Meeting adjourned at 6:40 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township.